Talkin Usability with SysTeam:
User Centered Design Process (UCD)

NOTE: This page is a collection of notes on user-centered design process (UCD). It is not intended to be comprehensive, and listing of any information here does not imply endorsement by W3C.

UCD in a Sentence

User-centered design process (UCD) is also called human-centred design process.

Human centred design processes for interactive systems, ISO 13407 (1999), states: "Human-centred design is an approach to interactive system development that focuses specifically on making systems usable. It is a multi-disciplinary activity."

In UCD, all "development proceeds with the user as the center of focus." (Jeffrey Rubin, Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1984) Rubin depicts the User-Centered Design Process as follows:

• The users are in the center of a double circle.
• The inner ring contains: Context; Objectives; Environment and Goals.
• The outer ring contains: Task Detail; Task Content; Task Organization and Task Flow.

"User-Centered Design (UCD) is a user interface design process that focuses on usability goals, user characteristics, environment, tasks, and workflow in the design of an interface. UCD follows a series of well-defined methods and techniques for analysis, design, and evaluation of mainstream hardware, software, and web interfaces. The UCD process is an iterative process, where design and evaluation steps are built in from the first stage of projects, through implementation." (Shawn Lawton Henry and Mary Martinson, Accessibility in User-Centered Design)

UCD Principles

From Jeffrey Rubin, Handbook of Usability Testing: How to Plan, Design, and Conduct Effective Tests, John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1984:

1. Early focus on users and tasks
   • Structured and systematic information gathering (consistent across the board)
   • Designers trained by experts before conducting data collection sessions
2. Empirical Measurement and testing of product usage
   • Focus on ease of learning and ease of use
   • Testing of prototypes with actual users
3. Iterative Design
   • Product designed, modified and tested repeatedly.
   • Allow for the complete overhaul and rethinking of design by early testing of conceptual models and design ideas.

Usability

The goal of UCD is to produce products that have a high degree of usability. ISO 9241-11 (1998) defines usability as the "extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use."

Jeffrey Rubin describes usability objectives as:

• Usefulness - product enables user to achieve their goals - the tasks that it was designed to carry out and/or wants needs of user.
• Effectiveness (ease of use) - quantitatively measured by speed of performance or error rate and is tied to a percentage of users.
• Learnability - user's ability to operate the system to some defined level of competence after some predetermined period of training. Also, refers to ability for infrequent users to relearn the system.
• Attitude (likeability) - user's perceptions, feelings and opinions of the product, usually captured through both written and oral communication.

UCD Process Steps

While the basic principles and techniques are the same, different variations of user-centered design processes exist. The following example is typical of a UCD process for designing Web applications.

1. Analysis
   • Vision, goals, objectives
     Image (feeling)
     Challenges and constraints
     • example: WAI redesign
   • User/Audience analysis
     • User Categories List
     • User Categories Matrix with knowledge, experience, and skill (KES) in www, accessibility, html, etc.; connection, environment; hardware, software; AT; frequency of use
     • Profiles (details, facts, figures)
     • Personas/Characterizations (made up "person" with name, etc.)
     • Technique: Field studies, contextual inquiry
     • example: WAI redesign
     • Team internal vs. member vs. public
     • few W3Team know *real* users
       • careful of assumptions, e.g., AC rep with *low* tech
   • Task/Purpose analysis
     • Task List
     • User-Task Matrix
     • example: WAI redesign
   • Information architecture analysis
     • Content list
     • Content-User Matrix
     • Hierarchy, Web relationships
     • not so much for most sys tools
   • Workflow analysis
     • Workflow - flow chart of all options
     • Scenarios / "use case" - specific stories
     • key! look outside of individual tool, model larger tasks. what doing before & after, what else doing? integrate tools in bigger picture
     • e.g.: task: find out what work groups Bruno VanNemon?sp? is in.
       1. w3.org/Team
       2. [Ctrl]+F, DBWG
       3. click DBWG
       4. click Individuals (DB-backed groups list, /2000/09/dbwg/)
       5. would like to be able to put in name here (DB-backed groups list, /2000/09/dbwg/person)
     • e.g.: task search mail archives
       1. Go to mailing list
       2. no link to advanced search - have to search first, then get link to Advanced search
     • e.g.: DBWG lists. Participants in EOWG. want to sort by status... heh just saw :-) make buttons?-- later in design notes
2. Design
   • if users can't find feature, it doesn't exist :)
     • perhaps make actions buttons (instead of text links)
   • ,access
     • currently:
       View ACLs as Now viewing diffs. View as list?
       Now viewing table. View in linear mode?
       Now viewing in plebian mode. View in hard-to-use mode?
       instead, perhaps make toggles:
       [View as Differences | View as List] [Table View | Linear View] [Plebian Mode | Advanced Mode]
       (e.g., Eval Tools search, but nicer) (team will volunteer for fun designing)
     • scrolling required
     • why do twice?
   • Member Access Request Form
     • add link to non-member login...
       • heh, just found :)
       • missed because of position (way at end, instead of with other "do this instead" instructions), and because text link.
     • "Please complete and submit the form below; ensuring that all the Required Information fields are complete." unnecessary
     • this one good to think about where instructions should go
   • common key question for design: frequency of use
     • infrequent use, AC meeting info (FTE)
       • easier to use first time
     • frequent use, e.g., mailing list search
       • fast to use once know what doing
     • e.g., where & how to provide background info: at top before form, or after form (with link at top that goes to it)
   • misc:
     • consistent visual design & interaction
       • schedule to update with site redesign?
     • mobile web best practices
     • WCAG 2 & accessibility
       • checking tools, Michael Cooper
       • forms, new requirements for errors
   •  @@ add the usability iceberg image 10% presentation, 30% interaction, 60% conceptual model
   • Conceptual/Mental model, metaphors, design concepts
   • Navigation design
   • Storyboards, wireframes
   • Detailed design
   • Paper prototypes
   • Online mockups
   • Functional online prototypes
3. Evaluation (iterate back to Design)
   • Design walkthoughs ("cognitive walkthroughs")
   • Heuristic evaluation
   • Guidelines reviews
   • Usability testing - paper, low fidelity - high fidelity; informal - formal
   • informal usability testing
     • just observe, learn (esp. newbies, e.g., Mauro. &/or non-techies).
       observe: sit on hands and zip up mouth :)
     • best to observe directly, not reply on reporting - people cannot tell you what they do
       • e.g. years ago observe people clicked on graphical buttons (but no one had reported it, or even said anything in informal test)
       • remote testing tools
       • have U.T. highlight tape if useful
     • people use in unexpected ways, e.g., public list of WG participants currently lists member organization and invited experts names. want names of participants from members, too, then can use for currently manual list
   • people will not tell you problems
     • e.g., phonelist
     • another couple in drafts folder
     • (sorry! :(
4. Implementation
5. Deployment

More Information

• usability fellow?
• Notes on User Centered Design Process (UCD) integrated here
• WAI Site UCD Analysis Summary and links to more details. do *not* need all that detail for most W3C projects
• Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design has examples of UCD steps (along with how to incorporate accessibility)

There are myriad resources resources on usability, UCD, and related topics available on the Web, in books, etc. Usable Web is a thorough list of resources on Web usability. It is no longer updated, yet does include other usability resource lists.

Justin Thorp compiled a short list of UCD and UT Resources, which provides links to on-line resources.